Need advice on Bear Shaman pvp

Hi,
I'm contemplating getting my BS into some minis, and was wondering if I could get some advice on, well, everything.

I know how to pvp on casters, but I am noob with melee pvp. I will buy the T1 set from item shop.

With this is mind, what build would be good for me, what aa's to use, and what would a prioritized rotation be (I understand I cant use a strict rotation, but I guess there are some combos that are better than others.)? Is there a particular manifistation that is used more than another (winter?)? What classes should I just stay away from (at least until I know what I'm doing)?

Everything you need to know is in this subforum. I am too lazy to repeat all. Just this, I use almost exclusively mani of forest and spirit. Sometimes mani of winter vs dt / pom or if timing issues demand it. Of course winter can be nice because of snare, too. Others will tell you mani of sun is very important. Some like IH builds, others muti builds and boaming roar is also very popular and nice. It is a matter of taste and your own playstyle. Same with stuff like balance of nature or brutal walker. You will have to find out what's working best for you.

1:1 bs is a beast, in groups you will find out that your heal is not sufficient vs multiple opponents to give you that surviveability that you have in 1:1 situations. So in minis you want that 1:1 situations make happen, which can become difficult because others want you to heal them. Soldiers (like all melees) for example love a bs beside them. You debuff, you heal, you get focussed because you are squishier than tank and tank get kill credits because tank does more dmg. Have fun

Against melee use unholy dot as main burst and kite/heal yourself, against casters mostly pom/tos but also dt the mana drain can prove very efficient, on tanks use armor debuffs (white perk rly good), bears is the most efficient major aa heal in the game for pvp if u like to healbot. then choose left tree end if u prefer damage number stacking over bubble. also most important stat is your blunt base dps for left tree and armor/prot heal rating for heal bot, good luck!

Doing a post here about manifestations, will hopefully make things more clear.

list in order of general strength:

Spirit - very strong pulse effect when you have Ursine Spirit specced. Don't believe the guys that say it's bugged... It's not! dot damage too isn't too bad either, and can be amped with Brutal Walker, but depending on spec and preference, I can't always afford the points... This is actually the only manifestion with both a strong pulse and vision, but you need to invest at least the 3 featpoints into it.

Forest - bread and butter for a bs, for obvious reasons. Always deploy this pulse if your enemy isn't debuffed already, since the debuff lasts 30 seconds it's natural to begin with this one, then go to Spirit after. Vision effect isn't all that, but vs. melees it sure helps.

Winter - strong, but situational. in a mutilation spec doing a bleed will in theory it'll give you three things: damage, snare, drain! SCARY!

Sun - on average best vision for damage, only beaten by Spirit when that crits. Pulse absolute trash, stopping at 2x stacks... Im beginning to question if it's been bugged all these years.

Regrowth - vision it's not bad. just... bears have rune of resi to increase protection, even RoG for those special times... The pulse... I guess it helps. but minor hots are never favorable. Burst is what kills in PvP, and this is why Spirit pulse is far superior.

So it's like Wheya said, you should mostly be using Spirit/Forest, and the occasional Winter, but here comes a little dilemma, feating into Winter or not? Anways, just let go of weaker manifestations.

Quick tip for AAs, use Feral Growl for ez damage. Super strong combo!

When it comes to specs I'll say... all endfeats are viable except nature's revenge, even general spec is totally viable. So many variations are possible, can't go into depth without doing a massive wot. Starting out as a bs, I'd go with IH though. Get in there, learn the boundaries of your class and make use of that 2 min cooldown. Don't sit on it all game.

Bewilder spec too can be hilarious when you face many melees, so keep a spec like that in your specialization for the occasion.

Mutilation with spirit (+ sun) and stone hide: http://goo.gl/2LbNQn - three points free, spent best in energybuff, brutal walker, or improved winter, but last option is debatable cause there's already forest + spirit + sun to use, so if you favor spirit, and very rarely put down winter brutal walker will be the winner imo.

Mutilation without stone hide, buffed manifestations and stunrange, max damage: http://goo.gl/C5kjhJ - one point free, use this if you're having a hard time to make use of stone hide. I've seen too many bears unable to use it well :P

typical Rampage + Booming roar: http://goo.gl/VmLGeg - here you see I put points in endurance of the bear, which is a decent feat. but the points here and in untamed can be allocated elsewhere (energy buff or weight of the world) This goes for all builds when possible.

double endfeat + deft renewal (change for untamed strikes if no use in group) + regrowth : http://goo.gl/Fz5iuc - rather niche, only when you have dex users or barb using evade perk to stack with deft renewal. very frustrating to spec since you're so close stone hide, so it's either 10 deflect or 5% weapon damage, but either way the build works for the supporter role

ultra support: http://goo.gl/JZZmut - perk in crit bigheal, and you'll recieve more heal compliments than you'd imagine. sun can be changed for regrowth, but since you're already gimped in damage so much, I'd rather go sun and maybe you'll do some nice hits after all.

ultra survivable healbot: http://goo.gl/uo6Mve - yeah, you're starting to get the idea. but mind you, you're missing both Forest debuff, and now the companion spirit, so it comes at a cost.

Sorry for all the mutilation variations, but it's really hard to choose. ok

Mutilation with spirit (+ sun) and stone hide: http://goo.gl/2LbNQn - three points free, spent best in energybuff, brutal walker, or improved winter, but last option is debatable cause there's already forest + spirit + sun to use, so if you favor spirit, and very rarely put down winter brutal walker will be the winner imo.

Mutilation without stone hide, buffed manifestations and stunrange, max damage: http://goo.gl/C5kjhJ - one point free, use this if you're having a hard time to make use of stone hide. I've seen too many bears unable to use it well :P

typical Rampage + Booming roar: http://goo.gl/VmLGeg - here you see I put points in endurance of the bear, which is a decent feat. but the points here and in untamed can be allocated elsewhere (energy buff or weight of the world) This goes for all builds when possible.

double endfeat + deft renewal (change for untamed strikes if no use in group) + regrowth : http://goo.gl/Fz5iuc - rather niche, only when you have dex users or barb using evade perk to stack with deft renewal. very frustrating to spec since you're so close stone hide, so it's either 10 deflect or 5% weapon damage, but either way the build works for the supporter role

ultra support: http://goo.gl/JZZmut - perk in crit bigheal, and you'll recieve more heal compliments than you'd imagine. sun can be changed for regrowth, but since you're already gimped in damage so much, I'd rather go sun and maybe you'll do some nice hits after all.

ultra survivable healbot: http://goo.gl/uo6Mve - yeah, you're starting to get the idea. but mind you, you're missing both Forest debuff, and now the companion spirit, so it comes at a cost.

Sorry for all the mutilation variations, but it's really hard to choose. ok

Huge thank you for doing this. I have been trying to figure out builds for 2 days now and searching info from the forums and can't be sure what is reliable since most posts are so old.

Mutilation with spirit (+ sun) and stone hide: http://goo.gl/2LbNQn - three points free, spent best in energybuff, brutal walker, or improved winter, but last option is debatable cause there's already forest + spirit + sun to use, so if you favor spirit, and very rarely put down winter brutal walker will be the winner imo.

Mutilation without stone hide, buffed manifestations and stunrange, max damage: http://goo.gl/C5kjhJ - one point free, use this if you're having a hard time to make use of stone hide. I've seen too many bears unable to use it well :P

typical Rampage + Booming roar: http://goo.gl/VmLGeg - here you see I put points in endurance of the bear, which is a decent feat. but the points here and in untamed can be allocated elsewhere (energy buff or weight of the world) This goes for all builds when possible.

double endfeat + deft renewal (change for untamed strikes if no use in group) + regrowth : http://goo.gl/Fz5iuc - rather niche, only when you have dex users or barb using evade perk to stack with deft renewal. very frustrating to spec since you're so close stone hide, so it's either 10 deflect or 5% weapon damage, but either way the build works for the supporter role

ultra support: http://goo.gl/JZZmut - perk in crit bigheal, and you'll recieve more heal compliments than you'd imagine. sun can be changed for regrowth, but since you're already gimped in damage so much, I'd rather go sun and maybe you'll do some nice hits after all.

ultra survivable healbot: http://goo.gl/uo6Mve - yeah, you're starting to get the idea. but mind you, you're missing both Forest debuff, and now the companion spirit, so it comes at a cost.

Sorry for all the mutilation variations, but it's really hard to choose. ok